Trump and Antifa
No one seems to know what or who Antifa is; so far be it from me to pretend that I do. I did meet a self-avowed one once. Interviewed the young man for 30-45 minutes; even talked on the phone a few minutes with his parents who lived in Oakland. By way of providing context; this was during the Occupy Wall Street protests in Oakland, CA. Down from Portland, OR, he was looking for a place to stay for ‘up to a week’. Twitchy, desperate, and vague, …, fits the description. I encouraged him to talk on the premise that I would learn more from listening than from asking.
It’s been a while, memory fades, but here’s what I recall: There was some connection to Guy Fox (Fawkes). His parents told me that they were estranged from their son, that he was involved in activities they didn’t approve of, would not allow their son to stay in their home, and couldn’t recommend that I do so. Joining a protest movement in progress was obviously nothing new for him. He was a bit of a Peter Pan; having no visible means of support. Others from Portland had come down at the same time. He talked vaguely about radioactive materials. For sure, he wasn’t down to sit in a tent on Broadway. I came to conclude that the young man was an anarchist, sought to somehow bring the Occupy Wall Street protest to a boil, to get a real revolution going, and, that somehow, he thought that doing so was a good thing. He intimated that he may have somehow been tangentially involved in the WTO riots in Seattle; not sure those numbers worked.
There is little evidence that Trump knows or cares what Antifa is other than a word that spits well. He does seem to believe that it would be good to associate such a mysterious sound with liberalism. Here in the US, it seems that no one is clear on what or who Antifa is. I hear that there is a more defined Antifa Movement in Europe. But anarchists abound. Some of the right-wing armed militia groups advocate Civil War which would certainly lead to anarchy. Many of Bernie’s Bros wished to pull the house down.
What is the appeal of tearing the house down and starting all over again? For the Right, it appears to be a wish to erase all changes to the nation since 1950; 20-30 years before most of the militiamen were born. For Bernie’s Bros, a wish to somehow impose their political philosophy on us all; something straight out of the bowels of 1950s Brooklyn, NYC. Seems 1950 was a very good year.
In the breast of every good anarchist beats the heart of one who sees themselves coming out on top in the end. All takers of shortcuts to the top of the mountain they would reduce to rubble. Hard to think of the armed right-wing militia groups separate seeing them as white supremacists wishing to return us to those good old days when blacks and browns knew their place. Cases of arrested development the both. Fantasies of Anarchism are common to teenage boys; fantasies fortunately most outgrow. What are the odds that these fantasies would persist so long in so many into middle age and beyond? Our times.
What of those who would employ these lost souls for their own purpose? Trump, no doubt saw right-wing, white supremacist, armed militias as part of a coalition allowing him to attain and retain the reins of power. In case of anarchy, Trump would do his fail-up trick to come out on top. Bernie must have thought that he could somehow leverage his <30% of about 30% into his gaining control of those very same reins. As to how Bernie was planning to ascend to the top in the advent of anarchy, don’t know.
In Trump’s case, they did follow. Alas, for Bernie’s, we will never know. Is America a land of sheep, or only a land of half sheep?
AntiFa basically opposes conservatism. You can try and spin it, but “white supremacist” is a dialectical term. Antifa has white supremacists who support the group as well. Activists are generally what’s behind “militias”(stolen from Mormons, who conservatives, are closely aligned with) and using Nazism as a marketing logo, but reject the philosophical foundation.
Trump and his family have tried to use these people forever. It’s part of the con.
“…Is America a land of sheep, or only a land of half sheep?”
[Better question is “Ia America a land asleep or only a land half asleep?” Whether dream or nightmare is subjective, but detachment from cognition of reality is ubiquitous. OTOH, I would not lump Bernie in with Trump so fast based on the behavior of Bernie’s loyal disciples. We certainly would not attribute Trump’s disciples with cognition of reality. Nut jobs are a dime a dozen regardless of leadership since, after all, respect for authority was trashed by the management before being abandoned by the rank and file.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBUe_v6Mi70
Talking Heads – Burning Down the House LIVE Los Angeles ’83
Trump and the Attack of the Invisible Anarchists
Lurid fantasies about urban hellscapes are all he has left.
NY Times – Paul Krugman – Sept. 3, 2020
On Thursday morning I walked across much of Manhattan and back again. (Why are all the doctors’ offices on the East Side?) It was a beautiful day, and the city looked cheerful: Shops were open, people were drinking coffee in the sidewalk seating areas that have proliferated during the pandemic, Central Park was full of joggers and cyclists.
But I must have been imagining all that, because Donald Trump assures me that New York is beset by “anarchy, violence and destruction.”
With only two months left in the presidential campaign, Trump has evidently decided that he can neither run on his own record nor effectively attack Joe Biden. Instead, he’s running against anarchists who, he insists, secretly rule the Democratic Party and are laying waste to America’s cities.
There’s not much to be said about Trump’s claims that people “in the dark shadows” control Biden and that mysterious people dressed in black are menacing Republicans, except that not long ago it would have been inconceivable for any major-party politician to engage in this kind of conspiracy theorizing.
There’s a bit more to be said about his claims of rampant violence and destruction in “anarchic jurisdictions” — namely, that these claims bear little resemblance to the mostly peaceful reality.
But invisible anarchists are all Trump has left. To see why, let’s talk about the real issues: the pandemic and the economy. …
When it comes to the economy, all indications are that the rapid snapback of May and June has leveled off, with unemployment still very high. Friday’s employment report is likely to show an economy still adding jobs, but nothing like the “super V” recovery Trump is still claiming. And there will be only one more labor market report before the election.
Furthermore, the politics of the economy depend less on what official numbers say than on how people are feeling. Consumer confidence remains low. Assessments by businesses surveyed by the Federal Reserve range from unenthusiastic to glum. And there just isn’t enough time for this to change much: Trump isn’t going to be able to ride an economic boom into the election. …
In short, there isn’t a wave of anarchy and violence other than that unleashed by Trump himself. But can voters be swayed by the president’s lurid fantasies?
Actually, they might. For whatever reason, there’s a long history of disconnect between the realities of crime and public perceptions. As Pew has pointed out, between 1993 and 2018 violent crime in America plunged; murders in New York fell more than 80 percent. Yet over that period Americans consistently told pollsters that crime was rising.
And with travel and tourism way down, so that people can’t see the reality of other places with their own eyes, it may be especially easy for Trump to pretend that our big cities have turned into dystopian hellscapes.
What’s less clear is whether this lie will help Trump, even if people believe it. “America has gone to hell on my watch, so you must re-elect me” isn’t the greatest campaign pitch I can think of.
And polling suggests that fear is not, in fact, the president’s friend. For example, by a large margin respondents to a new Quinnipiac poll declared that having Trump as president makes them feel less safe. Reactions to Biden were much more favorable.
Still, expect Trump to keep ranting about those invisible anarchists. They’re all he has left.
“No one seems to know what or who Antifa is; so far be it from me to pretend that I do.”
And yet that’s exactly what you do. The result is irresponsible ignorance on a par with a Trump rally.
You met exactly one person, apparently an unstable, infantile, jerk, 10 years ago, well before Antifa was even a thing. And Antifa isn’t even much of a thing even today. It’s not an organization, just a very loose self-identification label.
Your association of tens of millions of Sanders supporters with a handful of violent jerks is especially odious. Every day, I watch supposedly mainstream Democratic supporters borrow yet another trick from the Republican playbook. Anyone who opposes the neoliberal party line gets slandered and smeared.
I see Angry Bear is following the Democratic party plan. I won’t be bothered to follow what has become just another propaganda outlet.
Larry, but your part of the plan. Your creating dialectical delusions.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/portland-shooting-michael-reinoehl_n_5f51c213c5b6946f3eafa411
I just assume that “antifa” is a well-funded semi-secret organization controlled by the lizard people.
I mean, after all, even George Soros follows their orders.
I am sure that when Q gives his Ted Talk, he will explain antifa to us.
Antifa has no organizations. They are basically like I said, a anti-conservative “bourgeois” coalition including national socialists/Folk Nationalist types who we will call the “Charles Lindbergh” wing of the Left, who help in ecological and economic issues. Even Bernie Sanders flirts as funny as it is, with these guys.
It seems like the role antifa plays is
to spoil the election in favor of Trump.
They have no practical purpose otherwise.
What Will You Do if Trump Doesn’t Leave?
NY Times – David Brooks – September 3
On the evening of Nov. 3, Americans settle nervously in front of their screens to await elections results. In the early hours Donald Trump seems to be having an excellent night. Counting the votes cast at polling places, Trump is winning Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Those states don’t even begin processing mail-in ballots until Election Day, yet Trump quickly declares victory. So do many other Republican candidates. The media complains that it’s premature, but Trumpworld is ecstatic.
Democrats know that as many as 40 percent of the ballots are mail-in and still being counted, and those votes are likely to be overwhelmingly for Joe Biden, but they can’t control the emotions of that night. It’s a gut punch.
As the mail-in ballots are tallied, the Trump leads erode. But the situation is genuinely unclear. Trump is on the warpath, raging about fraud.
Within weeks there are lawsuits and challenges everywhere. It’s like Florida in 2000, but the chaos is happening in many states at once. Ballots are getting tossed because of problems with signatures, or not getting tossed, amid national frenzy.
Trump says he won’t let Democrats steal the election and declares himself re-elected. It’s an outrage, but as when he used the White House for a campaign prop during his convention, who’s going to stop him?
A certain kind of Republican takes to the streets to enforce Trump’s version of events. According to research done by Larry Bartels of Vanderbilt, 50 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believe “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.” Nearly as many believe, “A time will come when patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands.”
The left is in the streets, too. On the fringe of the left there are those who want to overthrow the racist, cisgendered, patriarchal neoliberal oligarchy. This is their chance at mayhem, too, and they seize it with sometimes violent passion.
But a new force looms into view. For the whole Trump era a certain sort of conservative has been cowering from the Trump onslaught. Certain sorts of moderates and liberals have also been keeping their heads down, so they won’t get bitten off by the woke mobs. But now the very existence of the Republic is at stake.
… it is the U.S. Constitution that keeps us from slipping into chaos, along with all the norms and values built around it over the centuries. They know, too, that this crisis is not just about race, but also the greatness of American institutions, so scorned and derided of late, so neglected and abused.
If Trump claims a victory that is not rightly his, a few marches in the streets will not be an adequate response. There may have to be a sustained campaign of civic action, as in Hong Kong and Belarus, to rally the majority that wants to preserve democracy, that isolates those who would undo it.
Two themes would have to feature in such civic action. The first is ardent patriotism. The country survives such a crisis only if most people’s love of nation overwhelms the partisan fury that will threaten to envelop us.
The second is the preservation of constitutional order. Through epic acts of self-discipline, the nonviolent civil rights marchers in the 1960s forced their foes to reveal that if there were to be any violence and anarchy, it would come from the foes. That’s how the movement captured the moral high ground and won the mind of the nation.
The process of mobilizing for an accurate election outcome, before it is too late, would be a struggle to preserve the order of our civic structure against the myriad foes who talk blithely about tearing down systems, disorder and disruption. It may be how we rediscover our nation again.
It’s time to start thinking about what you would do.
Hopefully, the message here is NOT that the best
course is simply to re-elect Trump so as to avoid
all this disturbing commotion.
Any well organized group of anti-establishment anarchists is bound to be sophisticated in its covert operations merely as a matter of survival. Hopefully Antifa has learned from the sad fates of X and Abbie Hoffman.